37. After many years of “should have, could have, would have” I decided this
would be the year I’d finally get away on a camping trip by ATV. Myself and the crew from Southern Harbour started making plans in late spring and
decided that a 3 day trip on July 5-7 would work out well for everyone.

36. Our trip would take
us from Southern Harbour (near Arnold’s Cove) west along the Trailway Provincial
Park to the Terra Nova area, no particular destination in mind.

35.
We awoke early Saturday morning to a beautiful clear day, which is rare this
time of year in Southern Harbour when the community is usually clouded in fog.

34. We got up and started packing the gear, grub, and tools that we gathered
up the previous evening onto the racks of the four ATVs. I was on
Project Foreman, Captain H his 2006 Grizzly 660, young Joe & Terry
on a Honda 300 and Tyson on his 2001 Foreman 450. With 5 riders, and 4 bikes
with two racks each we had plenty of room for all the gear.

33. Even though we
started packing up early in the morning it was still 10am before we left
Southern Harbour.

32.
Not two minutes out the road we experienced our first mechanical
breakdown. Tyson’s ‘01 Honda Foreman was seriously lacking power and was unable
to climb any of the hills. We figured a lack of maintenance and dirty fuel was
the culprit.

31. Already behind schedule we decided to leave the
bike in Southern Harbour as time was getting short to diagnose and fix the
carburetor. Tyson and I rode back to the house while the rest of crew
went on to Megan’s Gas Bar to gas up.

30. We dropped off the troublesome bike and
loaded all Tyson's gear and the gear off my back rack into a steel ATV dump trailer
(named the bush buggy) installed my rear rack cushion and departed for the second time.

29. My Foreman could
certainly feel the extra weight of 2 riders, additional gear and the weight of
the trailer, but these bikes were meant to work and it handled the task with
relative ease. Mind you, my bike was equipped with a 1-7/8" trailer ball and the
bush buggy required the 2" ball installed on another crew members bike waiting
for us at Megan’s Gas Bar.

28. We took our time heading to Megan’s, but half way
along our 2 kilometre journey Tyson tapped me on the shoulder just
as the bush buggy passed us!

27. It proceeded to cross the road, skid along the
shoulder until the tongue dug in, pitching the trailer end over end
before coming to a rest right side up in the ditch among all the
spilled contents of the trailer!

26. Luckily everything was packed water tight for just such an adventure and we
quickly reloaded the trailer, hooked it back to my Foreman, made a safety chain
from rope and proceeded to Megan’s for gas and a swap of trailer balls.

25.
We left Megan’s heading through Put and Paddle camp ground to Arnold’s Cove
Junction where we picked up the old railway track.

24.

23.

22.

21. Since none of us had ventured
much past Clarenville we didn’t know exactly where we would be camping, but we’d
figure that out later. The track from Arnold’s Cove to Goobies is still pretty
rough so travelling with a full load is relatively slow going.

20. Here on the east
cost a snowmobile club has only recently been formed so the track is generally
in rougher shape compared to the ride West of Goobies where years of grooming
and trail maintenance by that club lends a noticeably smoother ride.

19. Hopefully
in the near future as the East Coast Trail Riders will become more developed,
more trail passes are sold, and the funding will be there to further maintain
the track Goobies East.

18.
About 30 kilometres East of Clarenville the next surprise occurred when the
Yamaha Grizzly in our group decided to spit the core of the muffler right out on
the track!!! Unable to travel with no exhaust, I took out my fairly well
stocked tool kit and we managed to put the pipe together enough to make it
to Clarenville.

17. Luckily the boys at OMB Supply in Clarenville were very helpful
in loaning us some tools and self tapping screws to properly repair the exhaust.
After about an hour and a half of fooling around the Grizzly was fixed, we
grabbed a quick bite to eat picked up a few last minute supplies and continued on
our way.

16.
The track winds its way through the heart of Clarenville and Shoal Harbour which
is slow going, but we weren’t in a rush and the scenery was beautiful. West of
Clarenville the track winds its way through gorgeous hills and valleys crossing
the Trans Canada Highway safely under bridges and culverts along the way.

15. The
topography flattens out as you get closer to and eventually pass Thorburn Lake.
By now it was near 5:30 pm and we were getting tired and hungry so we started
looking for our camp site. More importantly the bush buggy was now starting to
cause trouble.

14. Since we were in a rush leaving (for the 2nd time) that morning
we didn’t properly inspect the trailer. If we had we would have found that the
lugs on the Left side tire were loose. The long journey caused the lug holes to
wear to the point that the wheel could come off the trailer over the lugs!!! We
managed to limp the trailer to a site just East of Port Blandford where we found a
beautiful site to camp.

13. It was a rather large clearing partially grown in with
alders but was secluded from the track, had lots of dry sandy area for tenting,
and was close to a rather large river. We quickly unloaded and some of us
set up camp while the rest gathered fire wood and got supper ready.

12.
To say we ate well on this trip would be an understatement, we brought lots of
food for our 3 day excursion and we planned on eating all of it!!! Since we
ended up buying lunch in Clarenville we BBQ’d hamburgers on a grate over an open
fire that we let burn down to coals.

11. This certainly cured our hunger as we
continued to set up camp. Later that evening while enjoying a few beverages and
entertainment provided by crew member Terry, we barbequed lovely thick Pork
Chops again over an open fire burned down to coals supplemented by a bag of
charcoal.

10. Fresh fried mushrooms and onions in the pan made for a midnight snack
fit for kings!!!

9.
The next morning we woke early to the smell of bacon and eggs in the pan being
cooked by the early riser of the crew and yet another beautiful sunny sky.

8. With
the bush buggy causing trouble we decided it best to run back to
Clarenville with it and drop it off at Tyson’s house in Milton
since it would really hinder our progress on the return trip Monday. It was slow
going back to Clarenville with a bum wheel which had to constantly be reset onto
the Hub, but we made it and before long we were back at the campsite.

7.
The rest of the day was spent riding past Terra Nova Golf Course and the
community of Terra Nova enjoying some unsuccessful trouting along the way. We
explored many side trails with most of them leading to dead ends, and stopped for
a rest at Pitt’s Pond where we waded in the warm, shallow, sandy bottomed pond.

6.
By early evening we returned to our camp site to have a relaxing evening by the
fire, cook supper and unwind. On the menu that evening was Moose steak which had
been cubed and soaking in a home made marinade since we left the previous day.

5. This was cooked in the pan and topped with a selection of string beans, chopped
peppers, onions an mushrooms for an awesome back woods stir fry. Our midnight
snack consisted of Cheese filled juicy jumbo hot dogs and a lot of plain hot
dogs roasted over the open fire.

4. This was to be the last night of our trip and
we celebrated with more cold beverages and a lovely fire next to the river.

3. Life
certainly doesn't get much better and it really makes me realise how lucky we
are as Newfoundlanders to be able to enjoy this sort of activity right at our
doorstep.

2.
With one of our crew due to leave for work Monday morning, we had a very early
rise and rapidly broke camp packing the gear aboard the bikes. This time however
we didn’t have the bush buggy and we were still down one bike but with all of
our food eaten we had significantly less cargo for the return trip.

1. This time I
loaded both racks of my foreman high with gear securing it with ratchet straps
and Tyson got on with one of the other boys for the return trip. With a
deadline pressing luckily the return trip was uneventful. It was a beautiful clear
morning with a touch of morning dew having settled on the land overnight. We
made it back to Southern Harbour in plenty of time for Young Joe to leave for
work and had lots of time to relax, unpack and clean up.